Gordon Millar No. I would not. This started out with rich kids in California waving their chipped hands at bar staff to pay for drinks - in much the way that "chip & pin" is now commonplace with debit cards. It is quite simply open to abuse. Yes, there may be benefits in respect of healthcare, telemetry based diagnostics and monitoring. However, there is a sinister potential ie the prospect of such private data being transferred or hacked by insurance companies and suchlike. To me, insurance companies are just like bookies. They make a bet with you and engineer the odds based on statistical analysis. With this, they could engineer the odds by effective insider trading - knowledge they should not be privy to and you can bet that the premiums would not fall if you were in great health and led a good lifestyle.
This, the development of so-called driverless cars and several other concepts is a step too far unless they are rigorously controlled but then again, like the banks, who controls the controllers?

Gordon Millar And on the other hand, so to speak, imagine the bar bill if you spotted a friend on the far side of the room and started waving at him to attract his attention:) Ouch!

Odd Viking Höglund Considering how many dogs and cats that I've micro-chipped I suppose I am forced to say yes: from a medical point of view, no problem, very low risk, and it would be easy to remove the implant (minor surgery). For a right-handed person I would place the implant in the left hand...
Anyway, the are opportunities and risks with the technique, well described by Gordon Millar. The risk of interfering with the program/software of the RFID tag, or potential abuse of data would have to be considered. But yes, the technique certainly has greater potential than what we have seen so far.

Gordon Millar Both our cats are chipped. I'm thinking of changing the chips and buying a remote control wand so I can stop the buggers scratching everything.

Vladimir Kaigorodov Given how much information relevant for insurance companies or hiring managers can be extracted from Facebook and other on-line activities of user... Those extra risks of chipping those people are close to zero.

But personal benefits can be enormous. I have a dream about a gadget ( connected with wireless sensor in my body) that reads my alcohol consumption and kindly suggests me to stop drinking when alco-threshold is over preset limit. It can create whole new generation of really useful gadgets.

Charles D Robbins III-MBA,CMfgEng My my, this is becoming Brave New World!

Odd Viking Höglund Joke aside, surely the technology has untapped business potential. Are there any companies that are seriously looking into this? Or is it rather too much Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell)?

One of my lecturers once said that you couldn't knock out the twin towers with a donkey; does it mean that we shouldn't fly? any technological progress can be used for good or wrong, depends on the user.
The question is what are the applications - if it can save lives / improve significantly the quality of life we should go for it, and as in other technologies - make sure that people without ethics will not be able to use it for negative applications, as much as possible.

Vladimir Kaigorodov +++5+++, :-)))))
make sure that people without ethics will not be able to use it for negative applications, as much as possible.

Gordon Millar Agreed but who controls the controllers? We elect governments to look after our interests and much good that does at times.

A 10% risk of cancer from implanted chips in animals doesn't concern you?

Odd Viking Höglund Interesting. But: "However, the 10% rate was obtained with hemizygous p53-deficient mice".
Also, remember different species often react differently: "Dogs, alternatively, are more resistant to the formation of malignant soft tissue tumors in response to foreign body insult."

Source and further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VeriChip

Gordon Millar Vladimir: If you require a chip to inform you when you have reached the desirable limit of your alcohol consumption, there is a strong probability that some of your brain cells have already been destroyed. My body has a highly sensitive inbuilt warning system. On the very rare occasion that I drink too much and get pissed, I start to tell silly jokes. That's the amber warning. The red warning is when I feel wobbly and stumble around hoping to find a karaoke machine. Fortunately, as I take reasonably good care of myself, I usually show a green light.
A similarly effective system applies to food intake, excessive exercise without warming up etc etc. My body advises me of my limits. It also suggests what I should and should not do. It has been pretty accurate for quite some time I am able to communicate my symptoms in a lucid manner to my doctor who then decides what action, if any to take.
Having yourself chipped may or not be effective (chips can fail) and as for Facebook etc being able to access whatever personal data they like, why lay it on a plate for them to abuse and misinterpret? We all know full well that Facebook, Google Wiki etc can get facts completely wrong and either correcting or erasing them can be well nigh impossible.

Vladimir Kaigorodov Dear Gordon, of course they exists , people like you with body made of steel and cement... and mind-control inbuilt in the brain structure.... They are not our clients of new technologies for algorithm-controlled behavioral gadgets.

All the rest 95% are our potential clients.... And alcohol abuse is only first model' ... just to make it working..... the very same tech-platform can be used for many others behavioral problems to fix.

Including over-eating.... And teenager behavior parental control.... as well :-)). Do not you want to know how much amphetamines and marihuana your lovely 13-yo offspring consumed in the last month? And is it a moment to act on it or it is still OK? just more or less normal....

Gordon Millar Vladimir: I am an ordinary mortal, made of flesh and blood. Nature is one of the best diagnostics systems ever devised or evolved. Sometimes it fails, the clinician fails, or as commonly, the systems devised by mankind and the scientists (who are only omniscient to the point of their current knowledge) fail and provide false readings.
I do appreciate the science of eg the renal dialysis equipment for patient home use which through effective telemetry, identifies either a patient downturn or machine fault and automatically calls an engineer or clinician and similarly, a heart monitoring unit which conducts an ongoing ECG to give a true indication over a reasonable sample time period.
However, I do not wish to have my life controlled, interfered with by an implanted chip.
Many years ago, I had a good friend who worked in the field of artificial intelligence. Most of his work was classified and he could only discuss it in very general terms. The project was effectively to create what might now be thought of as a HAL 9000 series. That would be the ultimate conclusion of the work. It burned him out intellectually and ethically. I did some work in the area of exoskeletal structures and it is only a matter of time, materials and linking the technologies together before some crazed scientists create the logical conclusion of this type of research. (They probably have already).
I don't want to be chipped. I don't even like my car. It tries to do things for me and I am better at doing them myself. I play golf but have no interest in a rangefinder gadget. I have eyes and can judge my own distance and I can factor in wind speed and direction from my own experience faster and better than any computer.I can also determine if I am going to have to drop the ball on the target or play it short and get some run out through evaluating the ground conditions. It's instinctive. I don't like "smart TVs"-they are intrusive. I don't bank online. It's open to abuse. I loath Facebook but use it for its limited interest and some remote family contact. My daughters have more sense than to try using dope. They have education, ethics and common sense and have seen the results in those who have experimented.
I am no Luddite. I make a living from technology. I see the potential but I also recognise the potential for abuse and I firmly believe that will exceed the applications for betterment - at least in the foreseeable future.
At one time, "experts" thought that lobotomising patients with behavioural issues was the way forward. Well, I need a chip about as much as I need a hole in my head.

Vladimir Kaigorodov Gordon, we are different species living on the same planet ... obviously... I appreciate almost all of that things that you do not like to appreciate.

Let's see who is going to win that game. I love humans... and I want to chip them all.... and for good reason.. biblical one.

Chip for Everyone. It is the future of humankind.

Gordon Millar In that case, I feel it's time to return to my home planet. They understand me there.

Karl Schulmeisters No.

RFiD is far too insecure a data technology. And that's the bottom line

Vladimir Kaigorodov Karl.... what is secure for you? Is you credit-card secure? Is your facebook secure? Is your E-mail secure? Your medical records? Your mobile phone?

Where starts that line , the borderline , when security is no longer exist for you?

Karl Schulmeisters I've got a Pin and Chip credit card -and its sufficiently secure for the balance I keep in the account.

Facebook is not secure - which is why I never do likes, never follow anyone and report every ad as offensive

Email is secure if I run encryption end to end

My medical records I do not have control of, but I've got HIPAA to give me legal liability recourse

Mobile phone? Secure? are you kidding?

Gordon Millar Having specific knowledge of RFID & telemetry, I entirely agree with Karl. Credit cards? You have protection against fraud. E Mail? Again, protect your system from hacking and phishing. Mobile phone? OK less secure but equally less critical. No, not every IT based device can be totally secure but with embedded chips, you have the option to maximise your security. Don't have one. Simple.
An embedded chip? Wide open, no protection, easily abused information. An embedded chip would be Utopia for the likes of NSA, Goldman Sachs, insurance companies etc etc. Let cats and dogs have them.
FYI: It is also possible to reverse the information download with telemetry and actually control the chip's host. Pilots/military personnel/drivers/anyone else you can think of who is crazy and naïve enough to succumb to this notion.

Vladimir Kaigorodov Well, as far as I can see around me , new generation, youngsters, they are not into concept of privacy at all. They do not care about it. I agree that embedded into body chips communicating with external devices with wireless communication protocols can be abused by a third party.

However is it a good reason to stop the progress in the area? I would love to have not one but 10 sensor chip-sets in my body.. With all that telemetry continuously going to my personal medical application that analyzes it and makes suggestions. It is like a best friend, customized friend, like a personal house-doctor, that finds problems in the very beginning.. and suggests what to do with it.

I have tons of ideas for start-ups in that area. Gadgets that will change our World.

Karl Schulmeisters Vladimir then you aren't really talking to these folks. the ones really not worried about privacy are the middle aged and older folks who don't quite understand the tech. but 20 somethings are much more contextual with their data than you realize

Vladimir Kaigorodov What sort of privacy we are talking here? Personal interests and hobbies, extramarital affairs, psychological disorders and mental illness, diabetes, alcoholism? Who needs to hide this?

Assume I am the driver of a BART train in San Francisco. I am mentally ill. Do I want my employers to know that? Think my job security and future might be impaired if they did?

Gordon Millar OK Vladimir. Chip yourself with 10 or 20 such devices, record the telemetry data and please please publish it on this site, Facebook, Google, Twitter etc etc and if you have an employer, give copies to the HR dept. Then sit back and watch your insurance premiums go through the roof, possibly your driving or pilot's licence being revoked, your employment eligibility being questioned and potentially the risk of being sectioned as a result of a propensity to behavioural issues being identified.
You cannot seriously believe that this would be managed only by those with ethics or that it would be solely for the purpose of monitoring your heart rate, cell count, respiratory function and intake of booze??